There are many compelling reasons why your ambulatory surgery center (ASC) might choose to outsource your revenue cycle management. Issues commonly stem from the ever-changing compliance and security issues, the need to streamline internal operations, the potential for increased patient satisfaction, and to maximize your revenue.
Such fundamental challenges could severely stifle your ASC’s potential for growth. The solution is to hire one of the many specialized companies that can perform effective revenue cycle management on your behalf, allowing your medical practitioners to focus on providing top-notch medical care. But how do you know whether your ASC needs to begin using revenue cycle management outsourcing? Here are the top indicators to watch out for:
1. Loss of Revenue
Revenue cycle management is a very complex process which means there are ample opportunities for errors to occur. If errors are occurring in your business’s process, you’re likely experiencing payment delays or you may not be receiving some payments at all. As a result, you could be losing a significant portion of your revenue.
In addition, these sorts of errors can result in customer dissatisfaction, which in turn can result in a loss of revenue for your business due to a reduction in the number of patients choosing your ASC.
2. Your Time-to-Collect Rate is Long
How much time does it typically take your surgery center to collect payment for services rendered? If your turn around for billing is too long, your ASC is bound to run into cash flow problems. Outsourcing your revenue cycle management processes to a quality partner will solve this issue.
3. Repeated claim rejections
Does your ASC experience a high rate of rejection or denials? If so, this will be contributing to a long billing turnaround time and may be resulting in a significant loss of revenue from non-payment of bills. With a dedicated billing partner, claims will be submitted faster and more accurately, allowing your ASC to considerably reduce its time-to-collect rate.
4. You’re Launching a New Specialty
When you decide to launch a new specialty, it inevitably means you’ll have additional medical responsibilities to take care of. At such a crucial time, your priority is, of course, ensuring your new procedures are serving your patients in the way you anticipated. You have enough on your plate already as you focus on implementing your new services and have even less time to deal with every minuscule new detail of billing and coding that is associated with your new specialty. A divided focus is bound to result in errors on both fronts, which is why it makes more sense to outsource your revenue cycle management to someone who knows that process best.
5. Cash Flow
Your ASC’s health and growth potential depend on your ability to manage costs. If you have problems with inconsistent cash flow or your collections are lower than they should be, your center’s capacity to meet recurring financial responsibilities, such as rent payments, purchase of supplies, payment of salaries, and other overhead expenses, might be limited. If your ASC’s revenue has been on the decline, outsourcing your revenue cycle management processes to an expert might be the best way to ensure you have the funds to meet your costs.
Do you Need to Outsource your Revenue Cycle Management?
In order to improve your bottom line, you need to ensure your business earns the revenue it’s owed. If your surgery center has experienced any of the problems mentioned in this article, you should seriously consider outsourcing the revenue cycle management for your ASC, as the benefits could be phenomenal. Increased revenue, improved efficiency, and greater customer satisfaction could be just around the corner. Contact us today for a free consultation.
